The One Who Remained
by floatingfantasy
Summary: One shot. Friendship is a precious thing. Inuyasha is a hanyou who has lost friends before. Will anyone be there for him, ever?


The One Who Remained 

**One shot. Friendship is a precious thing. Inuyasha is a hanyou who has lost friends before. Will anyone be there for him, ever?**

**A/N:Oh my god thanks so much to those who reviewed this story!i have edited those mistakes.thanks for telling me bout those, otherwise i'd never have seen and edited them. :) Oh, and i added some new lil parts in too.Hope you enjoy:))**

He stopped hurting after the third.

He was used to it, really. He had had enough practice.

Now, the forth was leaving him and all he felt was a second of shattering, crushing feel on his heart before everything subsided into numbness.

Bless the numbness.

He recalled, bitterly, as he lay on the grass staring at her beautiful profile, the way he had felt the first time he tasted rejection. That first night after he realized that the friendship, the close friendship he had had with Sesshomaru was over, Inuyasha had cried, really cried ever since his beloved mother had died in his arms. That memory evoked another of him trying to revive the dying friendship; the heart-to-heart talk with Sesshomaru.

"Sess, I need to talk to you" 

Sesshomaru had stared down at him and then nodded regally.

"_There's something wrong isn't it? Why have you been avoiding me these past few days?"_

"_Why Inuyasha? You should ask yourself I think. Who would ever want to be friends with a half-breed? A hanyou, an incomplete with dirty blood running in his veins. Did you really think I was your friend Inuyasha? What a sad, blind hanyou you are then."_

And with that, Sesshomaru had walked off, leaving a shell-shocked silver-haired boy sitting all alone, wondering what he had done wrong. Sesshomaru had, in that one reply, shown Inuyasha what a façade, what a great, grand façade his friendship with Sesshomaru had been. His first friendship that had lasted more than a few weeks had been forced right from the beginning.

That experience should have had taught him something, but no, he, the great foolish Inuyasha, the great foolish _hanyou_, had once again fallen for the trap of having friends, two wonderful, soul-warming friends.

Miroku, the pervert whom he had hung out with and spent so much fun times with. Inuyasha remembered the times when he had laughed at Miroku's attempts to catch a girl with his trademark question, "Would you bear me my child?" to any girl who had a chest and butt, as well as his perpetual groping of any unaware girl, causing said girl to hit him and Inuyasha to smirk at Miroku's suffering.

Sango, the fighter, who was secretly Miroku's object of attention and his first ever female friend. Inuyasha thought back to how Sango hadn't minded been his friend, even though practically all the girls were spreading vicious rumors about her. She had simply walked straight and tall and even ordered him to stop being bothered about those silly bimbos. Inuyasha had grinned then. They didn't mind being friends with him, a dirty half-breed, and an incomplete.

Alas, the paradise didn't last. Nothing ever lasted, do they? Inuyasha had foundthe note stuck to his locker.

**YOU ARE NOT FIT TO HAVE FRIENDS.**

**LEAVE THEM NOW AND MAYBE YOU WON'T SEE THEM IN THE ORBITUARY SECTION OF THE NEWSPAPER.**

**YOU DON'T DESERVE _ANY_ FRIENDS, SCUM.**

**BEWARE.**

Inuyasha had known what to do.

Miroku and Sango had come, consistently, to seek him out and demand why he had been so distant the last few days.

"_Inuyasha, darn it, don't you **care** about this friendship at all? Was all of that before just a façade?"_

"_Why, Inuyasha? Are you still bothered about those horrible people who study in that school and who have nothing better to do than spread rumors? Well, I have told you before, **we** don't **care** about them! We really want to be friends with you Inuyasha!"_

Miroku's words had been ironic to Inuyasha; it was like Sesshomaru's and his friendship all over again, just that he was now in the role of Sesshomaru. Sango. How could he tell her that he was not worried about the rumors anymore? She would never let him off then.

And then they'd die.

"_Damn you, Inuyasha. Damn you to hell." _

With that, Inuyasha had lost two friends at one go.

Sango had looked at him reproachfully before running to catch up with Miroku. They never turned back to see Inuyasha staring at them walking away, away from him and danger.

Away from his life.

He had, once again, walked home alone, a solitary figure walking to his lonely apartment, where before, he, Miroku and Sango would take turns walking one another home.

God, how he missed those times he had shared with those two. How he missed them.

When he got home, the silence in the room had been too overwhelming. All he could think of was that he had had to push away two friends, two! Banging his fist on the coffee table, tears free falling from his eyes and dripping onto the cracked table, Inuyasha had gone through every precious memory that he had spent with them. In the end, he had collapsed from exhaustion.

From that day onwards, Inuyasha became a recluse. School was a torture. It seemed everyone had people, had _friends_ to do things with. Eat lunch, talk, play, or just simply there to be accompaniment. To escape the curious eyes and prying questions like, "Why aren't you going for lunch, Inuyasha?", he had gone to the library, to use the internet, he would answer, but he knew that everyone knew that he didn't have any friends and would never have any to do things with. In short, the library was a place of hiding for him.

He was slowly fading, a living shell, and the soul gone into hiding.

He. Had. No. Life.

All the supposed joys of high school, the fun, the social whirl, Inuyasha had stopped experiencing them. He wasn't _entitled_ to them. For who was he? A hanyou, that's all. He was branded unworthy of friends, of enjoyment, of life, just because he wasa half-breed.

Then _she _had come. She, Kagome Higurashi, who had brought him out into the world again, who had taught him to smile again, She, who was always there for him. No one had dared to threaten her; she was the daughter of the rich and influential Koga Higurashi.

Inuyasha, to this day,still felt the exact same feeling of shock that someone who was obviously going to be popular would choose him as a friend.

He, the hanyou? Impossible.

Caution had caused him to seem cold towards Kagome initially. However, she never gave up on him.Having her always greeting him with a smile in the morning, walking home with him after school, just simply hanging out with him, Inuyasha had realized that she was one friend who would never turn away.

A beautiful friendship had begun.

Of course, there had been arguments. Which normal friendship wouldn't? Then they'd patch up and everything would be back to the content and joyous time they would always have when together. How he enjoyed her laughter. Hearing the peals of joy ringing out of her when she saw that she had scored very well for mathematics, her weakest subject, when Inuyasha allowed her to stroke his ears, when they were just simply doing the most basic thing friends do together—crapping, was like hearing an angel sing. It never failed to make him smile too, though he would try to hide it.

Throughout the two years that they had been friends, Inuyasha and Kagome had, in the course of time, acknowledged the underlying romance of their friendship. The sweet memory engulfing him, Inuyasha tenderly stroked Kagome's cheek. Their first kiss had happened when Inuyasha had just been badly beaten up by some bullies who had wanted to pick on Kagome for being friends with him. She had been sobbing after the bullies had took off and ran to his side, lifting then holding his head in her arms. She had rocked him gently, saying sorry over and over again. Inuyasha had been stunned; no one on this earth had ever cried for him. Ever. Overcome with emotion, Inuyasha had painfully opened his eyes and stretched up to place his lips on hers. The sense of coming home that he had felt when she responded was still there, warming his heart every time he was with her.

He should have known that everything was too good to last. He should have learnt the first two lessons.

His Kagome had to leave. She had been ordered to go overseas to study by her father. Now, waking the dozing Kagome up gently, he lifted her onto his lap and embraced her. He knew that, behind his numbness, the pain was lurking, waiting for an unguarded moment to leap out and attack him.

"Kagome…"

To his horror, he felt something warm and wet start its descent from his golden eyes. Trying to wipe his eyes as discreetly as possible, Inuyasha started to rock Kagome slowly, trying to absorb her feel, her scent, into him, tobe a part of him.

"Inuyasha, I…I have something to tell you…" Kagome was looking at him with concern.

"Yeah, what is it?" He gruffly replied. The pain chose to attack him at this moment. Inuyasha felt it hit his stomach like a real punch, and he fought the urge to kneel down and gasp.

"I…I love you Inuyasha…"

"No no no…you can't be. No one would love me, a hanyou! Don't play with me…" The pain had doubled in intensity; now it was clutching his heart in its cruel hands.

"Inuyasha, don't belittle yourself! You are Inuyasha, not a hanyou! You are yourself. I love you Inuyasha, nothing can change that and don't you dare tell me that I'm mistaken!" Kagome sat up and looked at him in the eye. Inuyasha couldn't turn quickly enough; she saw the sheen of unshed tears clouding the beautiful gold.

"Inuyasha… Why are you crying! Don't you dare cry on me! If not…if not I'm going to cry too!" She already was, the saltwater running down her cheeks unbidden.

Inuyasha knew then that he had to leave, and leave quickly. The numbness had stopped and the pain was almost too much to bear. He had to leave before she…before she destroyed him.

Standing up abruptly, Inuyasha started running, to where, he didn't know, he didn't care. He streaked past a shocked Kagome; ran past people who were whispering about him, for his tears were now freed from their golden prison and were blinding his vision. He ran and ran.

Two months had past since the dayshe told him that she loved him. He knew that she was in the States now. Standing at his balcony staring sightlessly at the glorious sunset, it was a few moments before he realized that his doorbell had rung persistently for a few minutes. _Who the hell…_ He jerked open the door. How dare anyone interrupt his thoughts about…

Kagome.

She was standing there at his doorway, smiling like the sun. Inuyasha stood, paralyzed,when she suddenly jumped and squeezed him, hugging him as tightly as though she would never let go again.

Hesitant at first, Inuyasha slowly put his arms around this girl, no this vision, in front of him. It could not be real, God would not be so kind to him, a hanyou. However, when he felt real arms, soft yet strong, return the hug, Inuyashawound his arms tighter around her and nuzzled his head against the soft black hair. Inuyasha thought he heard something crack when she lifted up her head and kissed him with all the passion he knew she had.

Kagome was back.


End file.
